Western -academic sponsor for MICCAI conference

More than 1,000 of the world's leading biomedical imaging scientists will gather in Toronto, Canada for the MICCAI (Medical Image Computing and Computer -Assisted Intervention) annual conference to explore the latest developments in medical imaging, robotics and computer-assisted therapies.

MICCAI 2011 is the world's premier forum bringing together clinicians, biomedical scientists, computer scientists, engineers and others who are pioneering methods with a variety of applications, such as minimally invasive heart and brain surgery as well as image-guided biopsy and robotic therapy procedures in cancer treatment. The conference is at the Westin Harbour Castle Conference Centre in Toronto from Sunday, September 18th to Thursday, September 22nd, 2011, with The University of Western Ontario and its Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Robarts Research Institute and the Biomedical Imaging Research Centre (BIRC) being this year's major academic sponsors.

Among the goals of the conference are improving communication between scientific disciplines, making state-of-the-art methodology as accessible as possible to clinicians and bio-scientists, and helping basic scientists understand the detailed requirements in different clinical and bioscience applications. Full details can be found at www.miccai2011.org

"This is such an interdisciplinary field that communication among research groups worldwide and the cross-fertilization of ideas is absolutely essential for us all to move forward and avoid duplication," says biomedical engineer Dr. Terry Peters, Co-Chair of MICCAI 2011 and Robart's Director of the Image-guided Surgery and Therapy Research Program. "MICCAI provides the world's top researchers with that unifying forum."

The three-volume 2,100 page compendium of rigorously reviewed scientific papers submitted to the annual conference, which last year was held in Beijing, is considered the leading current resource in the field. Next year's MICCAI conference will be held in Nice, France.

"Ground-breaking research, presented by renowned experts from around the world, is a MICCAI hallmark," said Jeff Stanley, Technical Account Manager, Medical Research, NDI. "As a long-time supporter of this conference and the innovation it represents in computer-assisted therapies, NDI is honoured to celebrate its 30th anniversary as a Gold Sponsor of MICCAI 2011." Waterloo, Ontario-based NDI is trusted by international leaders in medicine, industry, and research for the accuracy and reliability of its measurement technology. NDI systems are used across a diverse field of applications, from computer-assisted therapy to aeronautics; from quality inspection to human motion analysis. Today, the company is a world leader in advanced 3-D measurement technology with offices in Canada, Germany, and Hong Kong. The company has more than 20,000 installations in over 30 countries around the world.

For more information, contact Janette Wallace, MICCAI Secretariat, jwallace@imaging.robarts.ca, cell: 519-852-1956.